Review: Animals “Worms Birds Possums.”

The circle of life.

Spoilers Below

“Worms”

Phil-Mike is kinda like a Cat-Dog like a concoction of an earthworm where each dude is a different head of the worm’s body. Phil-Mike is preparing for a date with Laura-Daphne by trying on different outfits, adding hair, and brushing teeth? During dinner, cocaine is put in play and a boring date turns into a crazy time, but they run out of drugs and gotta get more from “Worm-for-all and all-for-worm”. The dealer’s other half shows up and the two get into a battle what sees “Worm-for-all” get killed.

Phil-Mike leaves without getting any more action from Laura-Daphne, but a bird comes by and tears them apart, but both sides regenerate with new kids. Despite that, the now separate Mike and Phil decide to stay living with each other.

“Birds”

A baby bird named “Charly” is hatched and we get a bit of an introduction between mother and daughter. Mom heads off to get some food for her hatchling leaving Charly in charge. Mama bird gets eaten by a Possum while searching for food, but then a new baby is born, however, is close to being starved to death. Charly falls out of the nest in an attempt to go get food where she discovers a worm that she’s not a fan of in terms of taste. The Possum returns Charly to the nest where she feeds her sister, “Egg”.

“Possums”

A father and son Possum duo are trying to get a meal on the birds, but the son, “Matthew” is obviously millennial-influenced and is expecting everything to be handed to him on a plate and soon watches in horror as his dad eats a bird. When Dad returns with the dead bird to serve for dinner, Matthew flips out, but soon decides to go get some bird of his own until he comes across the wonders of vegetation and returns a bird to its nest.

 

Our Take

WOOOOOOO!!! THHHREE WAYYYY!!!!!

Actually, this week’s episode was one of the strongest of the season, certainly reminding me of early season one in that the producers mixed in a few shorts into one episode, however, this one better showcase the improvement in storytelling quite a bit better. Yes, it came as a result of making the “Humans” bit a cameo, but I’m ok with this because, at the end of the day, this show is called Animals and not “Humans”.

Kesha and Mary Holland did a fantastic job in their portrayal of Laura-Daphne, and really the whole “Worms” bit was excellent, doing a better job at the premise than the Farrelly brothers did with Stuck on You and THAT movie had two Academy Award nominees in starring roles! That said, I do question a scene that had a bunch of censorship over what was said. I won’t spoil it, but it happens near the end, and it’s the first time in HBO’s near forty year history that I think they’ve ever had a sensor, which if it were my show, isn’t a distinction that I’d want. I would’ve just let the freak fly and let what was said and see where it goes.

“Birds” was also very good, and I don’t know if Rachel Ray shouting “Square Up Bitch” can get old, with the famous chef really owning her role, even whence compared to most of the cast featuring predominately seasoned vets.

And last but not least, the heart of the whole episode…”Possums”. I question the directorial decision to not film the possums doing everything upside down and directed as such, but really this bit showed the swell heart these boys used to show off more in the show’s first season, instead opting for gag commercials and live-action nonsense. By the way, shout out to the background designers on this week’s episode, the grass/ground where the tree was located looked so life-like, I can’t tell if it was a picture taken or if the background was hand-drawn either way, it looked stellar.

Hopefully, the season two finale airing next week will continue the good that I saw out of this episode.

SCORE
9/10